Report: Romanian State Nuclear Company Paid 16x Market Value for Land in Doicești SMR Project
Source: G4Media.ro, reporting by Augustin Majeru (July 28, 2026). Original article published in Romanian: g4media.ro
An audit by the Prime Minister's Control Corps has found that Romania's state-owned nuclear utility, Nuclearelectrica (SNN), effectively financed the purchase of land in Doicești at a price far above market value, through its joint project company with private partner Nova Power & Gas.
An investigation by the Prime Minister's Control Body into the National Company "Nuclearelectrica" (SNN) reveals the mechanism through which the private partner, Nova Power & Gas, allegedly managed to sell the Doicești land to the project company RoPower at a price 16 times higher than its purchase cost.
Nova Power & Gas claims the Doicești site transaction is reversible and generates no losses, stating that in 2025 what was sold was 50 hectares of remediated land, a new transformer station, and modernized infrastructure — not the assets originally purchased in 2021. The company says it has submitted documentation to the Control Body and supports independent verification of the costs associated with the small modular reactor project.
Below is Nova Power & Gas's official statement:
Nova Power & Gas has taken note of the summary of the Prime Minister's Control Body report on Nuclearelectrica's activity in implementing the small modular reactor project.
All documents attached to this statement, along with other relevant documents, were submitted to the Control Body as early as the beginning of 2026. We are making available to the authorities and the project company's shareholders all documentation related to our participation, and we support any independent verification of costs. However, we consider the following clarifications necessary, all verifiable in the transaction documents.
1. The assets sold were not the same as those purchased.
In 2021, the assets purchased consisted of land and undemolished buildings belonging to the former power plant, which had been shut down for about 12 years, with full obligations to demolish and close out environmental liabilities. In 2025, the same assets were not sold. The sale consisted of:
- 50 hectares of land, remediated and cleared of environmental liabilities, following the complete demolition of the former Doicești coal plant — the only fully demolished coal plant in Romania.
- A completely new 110 kV/20 kV transformer station with 6 overhead 110 kV lines, with a book value of 12 million euros.
- Grid connection capacity of approximately 600 MW to the National Energy System, via 2 overhead 220 kV lines and 6 overhead 110 kV lines — one of the country's most important energy hubs.
- A modernized, fully equipped and furnished office building, roads, parking, access control system, interior improvements and other assets.
The book value of the fixed assets subject to the sale, together with the re-invoiced costs for special works on the nuclear site (works worth 19 million euros excluding VAT), exceeds 40 million euros — more than the transaction value.
2. The price was set based on the buyer's offer, at the lowest of the market valuations.
The transaction was carried out based on an offer made by RoPower to Nova Power & Gas, following market valuations averaging 45 million euros. The sale of the site, with the assets mentioned above, was made at the lowest market value, namely 24.5 million euros. The valuations were carried out by Big Four firms and by a leading national ANEVAR-certified appraiser. Nova records no profit from this transaction even assuming the invoice for the additional nuclear-project-specific works is paid; absent that invoicing, it would have recorded a loss of approximately 19 million euros. These site-preparation works were carried out between 2022 and 2025 at the explicit request of the joint project team (Nuclearelectrica, RoPower, Fluor Corporation and NuScale), validated weekly in roll-out meetings with the specialized nuclear consultant. Nova proposed that the value of these works be converted into a contribution to RoPower's share capital.
3. The transaction is fully reversible. RoPower cannot record losses from transactions with Nova Power & Gas, because it has had and continues to have notices granting it the right to fully reverse the site purchase transaction, recover the full payment, and avoid paying for the additional works. The three notices sent are attached. This right of RoPower's remains in effect through October 1, 2026 inclusive. Under these conditions, the project company's acquisition of the site cannot produce a loss, either for RoPower or for the public investment. Additionally, RoPower's post-transaction valuation of the purchased assets was at least 63.5 million euros.
4. Financing and the technology component. RoPower's financing was structured from the outset through commercial loans from Nuclearelectrica, at 12% annual interest, in euros. Nuclearelectrica recorded these profits in its annual financial statements (91.7 million RON as of December 31, 2025). The loans were secured through the transfer of intellectual property rights and liens on RoPower's assets in Nuclearelectrica's favor, as well as by the benefits of the future plant's operation and the energy it will produce. The choice of American technology and the negotiation of local and regional rights to apply it were carried out through direct negotiations between Nuclearelectrica, RoPower and the technology supplier, without Nova Power & Gas's participation.
5. Share capital participation has been and remains equal. Participation in the project company's share capital has been, and remains to this point, equal between Nova Power & Gas and Nuclearelectrica. Nuclearelectrica's choice to set up a private company, RoPower, was based on the fact that a private structure offers more flexibility in procurement and decision-making, as well as greater attractiveness to investment funds. From the start of the project it was agreed that Nova would reduce its stake as new investors came in, as evidenced by Nova's approval of the Korean investment fund DSPE's entry into the shareholder structure and the reduction of Nova's stake to 13%. DSPE's entry was not approved by Nuclearelectrica's shareholders.
6. How the site was chosen. Nova Power & Gas had a development project for a hybrid site with gas-fired power generation, solar capacity and battery storage, similar to projects in Câmpia Turzii (Cluj county) and Roșiori (Satu Mare county). Verification of the Doicești location and negotiations began in 2020, with study and permit applications for its own project already filed at the time Nuclearelectrica approached it to be a partner in this project. We were not informed of the selection process or the criteria underlying the selection.
7. The delay in purchasing the site was not due to Nova Power & Gas. From RoPower's founding until the purchase offer, Nova Power & Gas invested in and maintained the site on standby, deferring its own project, with no obligations on either the buying or selling party, and notified Nuclearelectrica seeking to remedy this situation, per the attached document. The delay in the site purchase was not caused by Nova.
8. Nova's role is time-limited, and its exit from the shareholder structure does not depend on Nova. From the outset and throughout the partnership, Nova Power & Gas expressed its intent to be an investor only through the phases up to the ready-to-build stage. Nuclearelectrica holds a right of first refusal over Nova's shares in RoPower, and Nova cannot transfer its shares without Nuclearelectrica's approval.
9. The project has full financing offers. RoPower currently has offers for full project financing. Being among the first of its kind in Europe, and even the world, it resembles R&D or Tech-type projects, where a complete business plan is difficult to build at any stage of development.
10. The site remains usable regardless of the agreed technology. The site meets the conditions for developing a nuclear project regardless of which technology the shareholders decide on, and expenses from the FEED 1 and FEED 2 phases can be partially recovered, for other sites or other technologies. Should EU non-reimbursable funds for nuclear energy become available, similar to mechanisms applied to renewable energy production, the Doicești site would be among the first ready to access such funds, and the electricity produced would fall within a commercial market margin.
Original article:
The report indicates a "circumvention" of corporate law, suspicious changes to approval thresholds just days before the transaction, and the fact that the Romanian state fully financed a deal in which risks and benefits are distributed deeply unequally.
The Doicești Small Modular Reactor (SMR) project, presented as the future of Romania's energy independence, is now overshadowed by the findings of the Prime Minister's Control Body.
The document shows how Nuclearelectrica, a state company, allegedly financed through loans the purchase of land from its private partner, Nova Power & Gas, at a much lower value, according to the document.
In addition, the company is part of the group of firms that sought to partner in Romania's project with the US to purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US. The gas was to be purchased through the intermediary Nova Gas&Trade.
Nova Gas&Trade is controlled by the Mureșan brothers, highly influential in the energy market, with large-scale business dealings with the state. The US LNG, delivered via the Vertical Corridor through Greece, was rejected over the past year by private companies due to its uncompetitive market price.
The recipe for private success: land worth 2.8 million euros, sold to the state for 46 million
The transaction timeline, as presented in the report, raises major questions about how the public interest was protected.
In December 2021, Nova Power & Gas effectively paid approximately 2.8 million euros for the portion of land (about 52 hectares) needed for the nuclear project. A few years later, in June 2025, the same surface area was transferred to the joint company RoPower (owned 50/50 by SNN and Nova) for a total sum of 46.39 million euros (including VAT).
This amount represents a combination of a sale price of 24.34 million euros and a "re-invoicing agreement" of 22.05 million euros.
The report emphasizes that this price is 16 times higher than what Nova originally paid, without a solid economic justification for such an explosion in value.
It's also worth noting that the Doicești site, the land chosen for the SMR Project, ranked, according to the American consultant, second among the 9 sites evaluated in the final round.
Circumventing Law 31/1990: SNN removed from the law's protection
One of the Control Body's most serious findings concerns how mandatory independent expert appraisal was allegedly avoided.
Normally, if Nova had contributed the land as an "in-kind contribution" to RoPower's share capital, the law (Article 44^1 of Law 31/1990) would have required appraisers appointed by the Trade Registry to prevent overvaluation.
Instead, the partners chose to sell the land to RoPower exactly 7 days after the 2-year deadline from the company's founding expired — a deadline after which the legal protections for shareholders (in this case, the Romanian state via SNN) are no longer as strict. The report explicitly notes that this strategy "removed SNN from the law's protection."
The "re-invoicing mechanism": costs excluded by KPMG, included by Nova
To inflate the price above market value, Nova allegedly resorted to a "re-invoicing agreement."
The independent appraiser (a Big Four member — KPMG) set the site's market value at 24.45 million euros, excluding roughly 19.1 million euros in expenses which, in the experts' opinion, added no value to the land (such as interest on Nova's equity capital or building renovations).
Nevertheless, Nova re-invoiced RoPower for exactly these excluded costs, totaling 19.49 million euros (excluding VAT). Among these expenses were 5.44 million euros representing "interest on Nova's equity capital" and works carried out by Electrogrup (a company in the same group as Nova).
In effect, the state, through Nuclearelectrica, would have paid — out of loan funds — for its private partner's profit and interest as well.
Approval thresholds changed "with intent" just before the transaction
The report highlights a suspicious synchronicity: just 7 days before the land purchase contract was signed, RoPower's General Assembly, with Nuclearelectrica's representative voting in favor, changed the contract approval thresholds. The threshold above which General Assembly approval was required (where SNN's decision had to be officially mandated) was raised from 5 million euros to 50 million euros. As a result, the 46-million-euro transaction could be approved solely by the Board of Directors, avoiding greater transparency and rigorous oversight by SNN's leadership over how public funds were spent.
Full state financing, 50/50 benefits
As of March 2026, total expenses for the Doicești project reached 275.8 million USD. Of this amount, the largest share was financed by Nuclearelectrica through shareholder loans (approximately 228.6 million USD).
The report's conclusion is that while Nuclearelectrica bears the cash-flow burden and assumes massive financial risk, Nova Power & Gas holds 50% of the company with a financial contribution limited to share capital alone (approximately 4 million euros), the rest of its "contribution" actually being the land sold at an overvalued price — itself financed by SNN's borrowed money.
The Control Body maintains that this equal-share partnership "had no logical or economic justification," with rights and obligations established in a profoundly unbalanced way to the detriment of the state company.
"The Control Body finds that the private partner's conduct resulted in the sale of the land and the additional re-invoicing of works (...) in order to create merely the appearance of a transaction conducted under free-market conditions, and that the equal-share partnership had no 'logical or economic justification' given that risks, obligations and rights were not established in a balanced manner between the state company and Nova through the Investors' Agreement — a convention that prevails over the project company's Articles of Incorporation," the conclusion states.
